Profile: Nicole Chan – Only Natural Design Competitions

Nicole Chan

Cambridge School of Visual and Performing Arts

I’m currently pursuing my MA in Fashion Design at CSVPA, where I’ve been exploring womenswear through the lens of conceptual tailoring, emotional storytelling, and sustainable making. My work embraces the journey of womanhood, reflecting the fluidity and complexity of being a woman through sculptural silhouettes, fabric manipulation and garment construction. Before returning to study, I spent seven years in the fashion industry, specialising in the design and fabrication of best-selling handbags, followed by two years working in womenswear design and retail management. These experiences sharpened both my technical skills and my eye for detail, and they continue to influence how I think about wearability, function, and emotional value in design. What inspired me most in my MA was seeing how often calico toiles are left discarded after the initial development phase. I started questioning this: why can’t we give them a new life? Calico, usually seen as a rough draft, became a symbol in my work for overlooked beauty and untold stories. It pushed me to explore how sustainable materials can be more than a trend; they can hold deep conceptual meaning too. I would love to continue working as a womenswear designer in the fashion industry, creating clothing that is emotionally resonant, detail-focused, and mindful of their material origins.

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Reconnected Fragments

Category: Apparel

Competitions: Fashion Competition 2025

This project is a reflection on identity, emotional reconstruction, and sustainability through the lens of conceptual fashion. Inspired by the work of artist Glenn Ligon, particularly Mirror #9 and I Am a Man, I was moved by how he used language, fragmentation, and invisibility to address identity and struggle. My design takes these ideas further, channelling them through tailored garments that explore construction, deconstruction, and emotional repair. The faded walls of Fitzwilliam Museum’s Gallery 6, marked by small holes from removed artworks, also became a key visual reference. These traces, like memories or scars, deeply informed my fabric manipulation techniques, including loose threads, unfinished seams, and stitched annotations. They reflect the quiet complexities of personal and collective histories. Rather than using traditional embroidery or surface embellishment, I approached stitch as a language: hand-stitched annotations replace written text, dissecting and reworking the inner structures of a tailored jacket to expose its hidden architecture. The phrase “I AM A WO-MAN”, a reinterpretation of Ligon’s “I Am a Man”, appears subtly on the garment to affirm existence and honour the journey of the female body through different life phases. What makes this submission original and innovative is not only its conceptual grounding but also the use of sustainability as part of storytelling. I up-cycled calico toiles from previous projects, a fabric typically discarded after prototyping, to give them new meaning. I also reused second-hand tailoring components such as facings and shoulder pads to reduce waste and honour the value in forgotten materials. My work combines emotional depth, critical research, and sustainable thinking. It is tactile, thoughtful, and visually poetic, created not just to be worn but to be felt and understood. This is a piece that tells a story and invites others to reflect on their own. With care in its making and meaning in every stitch, it is a garment designed to last and to be remembered.